When it comes to plumbing, homeownership can sometimes feel full of surprises! With our plumbing blog, one of our main goals is to keep you informed and educated on some of the basic in’s and out’s of residential plumbing. While this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to prevent all plumbing issues from occurring, it will give you the knowledge to know when something isn’t right. Trust us, being able to take care of a plumbing issue early on is going to always be in your best interest, in comparison to letting it sit for a few weeks (or months) and turning into a plumbing nightmare!
On today’s blog, we’re going to walk you through one of the plumbing projects that is certainly not the funnest of times for homeowners and that is sewer line repair/replacement. As you’d likely guess, your sewer line is a key cog in the overall plumbing system. After all, it’s what is responsible for transporting your waste from your home to the city. No matter if it’s in a residential home or a commercial facility, when this isn’t working correctly, it can create a messy situation. With that introduction in place, let’s go ahead and analyze some of the primary causes of sewer back-up and failure.
How to Approach a Sewer Line Back-Up or Failure
When you get down to it, a sewer line back-up is fairly easy to define (and possibly something you’ve witnessed first-hand before). To put it simply, each home has water lines going into the house and sewer lines leaving the house. As you would expect, the sewer lines are taking the used water from the various household fixtures. When these lines get blocked, the used water comes back into your home (hence being called a “back-up”) and the results can include mold, water damage and various other forms of contamination.
Sometimes, you’re able to clear the clog that is causing these back-up’s. However, other times as you’ll see down below, there is already a breach in the sewer line. In these scenarios, things are just going to get worse and your only solution is to replace the broken line. Keep in mind that this should likely be the last thing that you look into doing. Due to how extensive the repair process is, you would much rather go for a simple sewer or drain cleaning if it will clear the clog.
What Causes a Sewer Back-Up or Failure?
1. Clogs
Unsurprisingly, one of the most common causes of a sewer back-up is a clog in the line. While these can lead to potential emergencies if they occur repeatedly or even if they sit for too long, the truth is most of them can be prevented. The best tips we can give is to practice regular maintenance (i.e. take care of issues once you notice something isn’t right) and know what your drains can and can’t handle. In other words, try to avoid ever pouring grease down the drain. Trust us, once grease hardens inside your plumbing pipes, it won’t take long for it to catch some debris and create one messy situation! Another place that creates clogs is when people think their toilet can also operate as a trash can. Just remember, toilets are built for human waste and toilet paper. Anything else needs to be thrown away in the trash!
2. Tree Roots
Having replaced more than a handful of sewer lines in my time, it’s safe to say that tree roots have been part of the problem on plenty of occasions. This is even more so the case in some of the older neighborhoods across Kansas City, where you’ll notice much bigger trees in the front yards. The logic behind this is fairly straightforward. Tree roots are always searching for a water source. When there’s a crack (even a small one) in the sewer pipe, the roots are able to penetrate the piping. Once inside, they’ll just continue to grow and cause more and more issues.
Keep in mind that any plumber you consider hiring for a sewer line repair shouldn’t automatically assume a sewer line replacement is the only solution. With the help of an inspection camera, a licensed plumber will be able to look through the sewer line and see where the issue is. They’ll also be able to determine whether it just needs cleaned or if you need part of it replaced.
3. Worn Out Material or Old Age
As we’ve mentioned before here on the blog, no piping material is built to last forever. Even though we have learned about the effectiveness of PVC and its ability to withstand root penetration, the truth is it wasn’t always used as often. In fact, materials like clay tile and cast iron were used on countless sewer lines over the years and many still exist to this day. Just check out our Facebook page and you’ll run across a few sewer line replacement projects where we’ve run into each.
Here’s a quick synopsis why the two materials mentioned above aren’t the best fit for sewer lines. Clay tile sewer lines are highly susceptible to roots finding their way in. And once they’ve penetrated the line, it’s usually downhill from that point. The reason why they’re able to do this on clay tile has to do with the tightness of the fittings and the ability of tree roots to whittle their way in. The other material I mentioned above was cast iron piping. Cast iron is another perfect example of a material that was very popular years ago. Unfortunately, it’s since been learned that cast iron is also prone to rusting and corrosion, two things you definitely don’t want occurring in your sewer line!
Looking for a complete guide on how long different types of material last? Check out our blog that dives deeper into the topic. It also discusses why a couple of once-popular materials are no longer used anymore!
What Can YOU Do?
Even though we’re always here to help you out with sewer line issues, we know they definitely aren’t the funnest of times for homeowners. If it’s just a routine clog, you might be in good shape and an experienced plumber will be able to clear it relatively quickly. Remember, don’t use chemical drain cleaners when you notice a clog. While these may seemingly fix the issue at the moment, you’re likely setting yourself up for some future troubles. Knowing this and other best practices, like avoiding pouring grease down the drain, being careful with what goes down the toilet, and knowing the expected lifespan of your sewer line material, will put you in great shape to get the maximum years out of your sewer.
An added tip that you could add to your regular plumbing maintenance is sewer and drain cleaning. The reason why this could be added as an annual task is because it’s not always easy to tell when something is awry with your sewer lines. After all, until something serious happens, you’ll likely just assume everything is working as normal! Eliminate the possibility of something building up over time in your sewer lines by keeping it clean on a consistent basis.
On the flip side, there are going to be some things that you have no control over. Matters such as city sewers clogging (although this doesn’t happen nearly as often as home lines, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility), soil settlement causing the lines to collapse or even flooding can all wreak havoc on your personal sewer line.
Hire the Sewer Line Experts in Kansas City!
Each year, our service team gets plenty of work done with sewer lines. Whether that be sewer line cleaning, running the inspection camera through to see if everything is working properly or even replacing them altogether, it’s certainly one of our more popular services. As you’ve seen throughout this blog, sewer lines can fail for a number of reasons. Sometimes, these are due to actions of the homeowners themselves, while other times it is simply due to wear and tear over the years.
In any case, know that your friends at Stine-Nichols Plumbing are always here ready to help with all of your sewer line needs. If your sewer backup ever gets to the point where it’s sending waste back into your home, make sure to turn off any water going to the drains and shut off the electricity as well. When they get this severe, you want to act quickly. No matter if it’s an emergency like this or something you have a little bit of a time, we’ll always be ready to go! Just give us a call at (816) 348-3481 for a free quote.